Wounded Guardsman, Crimea, 1854

Study of a wounded Guardsman, Crimea, 1854 (c). Oil on board by Elizabeth Thompson (later Lady Butler) (1846-1933), 1874 (c). This half-length portrait of a soldier with his head bandaged is a preliminary study for the key figure standing in the centre of Elizabeth Thompson?s famous painting, ?The Roll Call?, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874 and subsequently acquired by Queen Victoria. The muster of soldiers depicted in ?The Roll Call? was not linked by the artist to a particular action, rather it was intended to form an archetypal image of the arduous conditions under which the Army laboured in the Crimea. Although the finished canvas conveyed with a dramatic realism the effect that the experience of war must have had on the Guardsmen, the anxious, drawn face of the figure in this study was altered considerably and rendered more stoical in appearance. On the reverse: studies of a highlander in glengarry and serviceman smoking pipe and outline of a head (possibly studies from troops on manoeuvre, Aldershot). The facial expression of the figure in ?The Roll Call? (Royal Collection) is more stoical, perhaps less dramatically anxious and pathetic

1846 1854 1856 Acquired Aldershot Altered Although Anxious Archetypal Arduous Bandaged Considerably Conveyed Dramatically Effect Exhibited Experience Finished Glengarry Guardsman Guardsmen Highlander Intended Less Linked Manoeuvre Manoeuvres Muster Outline Particular Pathetic Perhaps Preliminary Ranks Rather Realism Rendered Serviceman Stoical Studies Subsequently Wound

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